


Far From Human

by humblepirate



Series: Umbrella Academy/Reader Fics [7]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Fuck Canon, Mentions of Substance Abuse, Post-Season 2, Season 2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:28:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26481940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humblepirate/pseuds/humblepirate
Summary: You never thought you'd see Ben again, and now here he is, but- it's not your Ben. The Sparrow Academy's Number One is distant, and cruel, and he makes you want to throw him through a brick wall most of the time.So why can't you stay away from him?(Rated M for future chapters- tags will be updated appropriately.)
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves/Reader, Sparrow!Ben/Reader
Series: Umbrella Academy/Reader Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1937500
Comments: 9
Kudos: 29





	Far From Human

**Author's Note:**

> Request: "idk if requests are ok but I kind of wanted to read sparrow!Ben being put in his place.. either with a strap on or overstimulation. He’s just so cocky, I wanna read about him being knocked down a few pegs 😭🥺 If it’s something you’re up to writing, I’d love to read it ❤️❤️❤️❤️"
> 
> I'm not gonna lie, I haven't stopped thinking about this request all week lol. It's really difficult to write at the moment and I've been splitting my time between this and a new Handler/Reader fic, but I didn't want to keep the requester waiting too long so I'm dropping the introduction to tide yall over! The second chapter will get to the ~sexy stuff~. 
> 
> For context, this picks up right at the end of season 2. Reader is Number Eight, the Mimic. I'll explore their powers more in the next chapter! Also, their relationship with Ben was purely platonic/familial. Sparrow!Ben is a totally different person and goes by Number One.

You’re home, but you’re not. Your brother is here- living, breathing, the most alive you’ve seen him in nearly twenty years- but he’s  _ not _ . This man is a cheap off-tone copy, an imitation, a distant shadow of the Ben from your timeline. This isn’t your brother. This isn’t Ben.

This is the Sparrow Academy’s Number One.

_ Shit _ .

After the initial flurry of confusion, during which dear old Dad (sorry-  _ Reginald _ ) just barely called off his bloodthirsty brood before they ripped you and your siblings apart, you finally sat down and got some clarity. Your actions in the past had created a new branch of the timeline, one in which Hargreeves still obtained only seven of the “miracle” children, but of these, only Ben- One- remained a constant. At least, the facsimile of him. 

None of them have real names. They never needed a Mom, just a stream of nannies paid too well to question Hargreeves’ parenting methods, and so they grew into their numbers. One, with the army of eldritch horrorterrors at his disposal, is unquestionably the leader. 

In times of confusion, you and your siblings default to your own Number One. Reginald offers- commands, really- you all to stay at the mansion and join forces with the Sparrow Academy, but Luther firmly declines. A part of you had feared that even after everything he’s gone through, Luther would want to remain at the Academy, and you’re all quietly relieved when he declares that you’ll be leaving immediately.

Outside in the sunny but cool spring day, the reality hits you- you’re back just one day after you’d left 2019, and yet an eternity has passed in the meantime. You had a  _ life _ back in Dallas, one that’s suddenly ended, and you feel gutted in the same way you had back when Five’s powers first deposited you in the past.

You’ve finally returned to the correct time, and you’ve never felt more out of place.

It’s harder to start over here. Everything in this decade is recorded, analyzed, tracked. And yet, you still cannot find any traces of your alternate selves in this timeline. It makes sense, considering how different your lives must have been growing up outside the Academy; you don’t even know their names. Still, it’s eerie going from a world where you’re internationally renowned to not even being able to look yourself up in a phone book.

You would think that six people who arrived quite literally from nothing would find it difficult to integrate into the twenty-first century, but you manage. Klaus and Diego “liberate” enough cash (after Luther made them promise to pay it back as soon as they could) to score you a few nights at a seedy motel, and after you’ve had time to recover from the dizzying ordeal of time travel, your next goal is to get jobs.

Luther doesn’t have any trouble finding another mobster in need of some muscle. Diego actually gets his old job at Al’s gym, not that anyone there remembers him. Klaus, predictably, prefers to earn his living in the red light district, though thankfully he promises to remain as sober as he can. You would expect Allison to rejoin the entertainment business, but she rumors positions for herself and Vanya at a nail salon in the mall. Five, to everyone’s complete surprise, elects to enroll in public school. At your combined stares, he grudgingly admits that while his knowledge of space-time exceeds that of top NASA analysts, he never actually received any formal education past the age of thirteen, and he would at least like to give it a shot.

You, however, struggle to find your niche in this new world. You’d left the Academy at the same time as Klaus and spent the ensuing years wandering in and out of sobriety with him. When Five had launched you back in time, you’d stuck with him along every step of his journey toward becoming a cult leader- sorry,  _ alternative lifestyle community _ . He was always the star of the show, but you were the puppet master. You depended on each other: he on you for stability and guidance when he was at his lowest, and you on him for a connection to your childhood- and to Ben.

Until he whipped out his ghost powers during the big battle right before the apoco-not, you had no idea that Klaus could see Ben. Naturally, you were pissed at first- Ben was always the one to whom you were closest, yet Klaus had kept him from you. After you had some time to process, however, you understood why he had done what he did. He also more than made up for it by manifesting Ben as often as he could while you traveled together in the sixties. 

Perhaps that was why it had been easier for you to get sober than Klaus. Even at your lowest, you always knew that Ben was there, watching out for you, and just that knowing was enough to give you strength.

It fucking tore you apart when he left.

That part of you is still raw, a chunk of your torn-up heart that will never fully heal. And seeing him at the Academy, but it’s not  _ Ben _ , not really- it’s like you had to bury him all over again.

Maybe that is what inspires you to return to the mansion and offer your services. You’re not going to join the Sparrow Academy, you make damn sure Reggie understands that; but you’re the only one of them who learned to fight outside the Academy, the only one to face off against Commission agents, so Hargreeves takes you on as a sort of contractor. You come by six days a week to train with the others and show them some things you’ve picked up, as well as share with your dad-but-not-your-dad some information about your time travels for his notes. You don’t care what he does with it. You just want to be close to One.

  
  


You are all the same age- give or take a few years for temporal anomalies- but One behaves as if he is simultaneously much older and far younger than you. He can quote pages of Homer in the original Greek and calculate the circumference of a pinhead just by looking at it, yet he is clueless about anything outside of his rigorous Academy training, sometimes to the point of naivete. He’s never played hopscotch or watched a YouTube video, and despite being nearly thirty he’s never even touched processed sugar, alcohol, or anything else that wasn’t pure fuel for his duties.

There is something darker to him, too, a comfort with his power that you find disconcerting. Ben had been timid and soft, terrified of calling the beings forward even in the most desperate of circumstances. Everything he had done had been to protect his family and the city. One, however, wields absolute command over the Horror. His control is minute and precise, even casual, clearly the result of many hours of training and bloodshed. 

Quite frankly, it terrifies you.

The others, you are relieved to learn, are not nearly as uptight as their leader. They respect him, but moreso out of fear than true admiration. Their team is bonded by their sense of duty, far more like an infantry unit than a family. They refer to Reginald as “Sir,” never “Dad,” though there is no trace of bitterness when they do so. There’s an air of resignation in the gesture. 

When not occupied with Academy business, they’re actually quite fun to be around. You spend more than a few evenings at a local pub, drinking and swapping stories about your respective childhoods. From what they tell you, theirs were a lot less traumatic. You’re surprised when they tell you how much less uptight Reginald has gotten over the past few years, since the Sparrow Academy has proven their loyalty to him and to the safety of the world. Maybe the dickhead learned a couple lessons from his alternate self’s parenting failures.

All of this, in your eyes, makes it even weirder that One insists on sticking to a rigid regimen. The others describe how he was always a stick in the mud, so obsessed with being Reggie’s golden boy that he’s never let himself have any fun. It reminds you a little too much of another Number One you know.

If he could change, then so can this one.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you are enjoying this story so far! I haven't written the second chapter yet so if you have any requests for kinks, scenarios, or anything else you'd like to see, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can comment here or if you prefer, I can be reached on Tumblr at humblepirate. I have to rest my hands for a bit but I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can!
> 
> Work title is from All the Stars in Texas by Ludo.


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